Table 2.

Focus group findings related to influences on children/grandchildren around oral health

Sub-theme	Representative quotes
School-based influences	…Two of my grand kids are in charter schools…You take your child to the dentist…They will send you a letter home, you know, to tell you about taking the child to the dentist. When I was volunteering in the system…I would show the children…I would show them my partial and I would say this is what happens if you don’t go to the dentist…And, I worked 25 years in two schools. I think I have affected enough people for the next coming generation. All I did was take out my teeth…
General advice to take care of mouths	I tell my children: take care of your teeth, take care of your mouth… …My children are in Puerto Rico…when I call them on the phone I tell them that…to take care of their mouths.
Offer brushing and flossing advice	I give advice to my grandchildren…that you should brush your teeth well…every day. I tell my grandson that he has to brush his teeth, take dental floss and how he brushes his mouth too. …Children in the morning should brush their teeth to avoid having to go to the dentist all of the time…And at night, before going to bed, they should brush too. After a meal in the afternoon as well.
Encourage dental visits	I think it [fear] comes from childhood, because children don’t like to go to the dentist, and it’s a struggle. I talk to mine about making sure that they [children] go to the dentist so they’ll maintain a healthy mouth…You know, so I just have one of my kids that will not go to the dentist and he’s had a chipped tooth since he was a senior in high school and he will not go so that’s on him but all the rest of them have beautiful sets of teeth and make sure that they maintain them. So it’s only one of the bunch—that’s OK.
Inspect mouths and breath	…I talk with them [grandchildren] because I am always paying attention that—I open their mouths and observe their teeth, their molars, everything. I always try to make them pick up their toothpaste and clean their mouths two or three times per day. And I do the most I can. You need to clean it as often as you eat. …I always think about a grandson I have. Very often, two or three times a day, I ask him, “Did you go brush?”…“Then go brush up if you haven’t brushed your teeth.”…And I say, “Come here. Breathe out in front of me. That’s OK,” after he brushes because if not, go back and brush again…one of the things that keep the most bacteria is our tongue.
Children encourage parents and parents encourage children	Well, what she [daughter] does, though, is she goes—whenever she goes to a dentist…she’ll say to me: “When was the last time you get into a dentist?” “Well, sometime. I haven’t been there in a while, you know, but I’ll be going soon.” Next week, or in a couple of days, she’ll call me, “Daddy: did you go to the dentist?” You know. That’s one thing she does which is towards my health… I have a daughter that stays with me at home…And when we are going to bed, I go and brush my teeth. And then I see that she doesn’t move and I say, “[name], go to the bathroom. Go wash your mouth.”
Use own oral health as a lesson	…I’ve explained to them [grandchildren] what happens to me so you need to take care of your teeth. Brush in the morning, if you can’t in the afternoon, before you go to bed…the experience that we have in our teeth in our mouth we don’t want them to go through the same thing you know that we are going through…We want prevent the next generation coming up our siblings, our grandchildren from going through what we are presently going through so if we educate in all aspects of life, we need to educate the upcoming generation as far as health teeth, you know, everything. …I tell my grandkids you don’t want to be like grandma. Keep, take care, brush your teeth, brush the tongue, the top of the mouth… Why do you have to fight with your children that don’t want to, they don’t even brush their teeth? And they’re big and you have to be there ‘brush your teeth so you don’t end up without teeth like me’… I got to tell my grandkids…They say, “Grandpa: I got more teeth than you do.” ‘Cause I smile and he smiles, and he’s got teeth that I don’t. Like when he asks me why I have no teeth and then I explain it to him. I talk a lot with my granddaughter and with my other grandkids. What I say to them: look, I lose my teeth because I did not wash them, let’s go to the dentist, you have to wash your mouth, brush your teeth, brush them after eating, before going to bed, you brush them to ensure that what happened to me doesn’t happen to you and they go do that…they say: mama, mama, look that I just ate and I am going to wash my mouth. They are trained to do that.
Institute oral hygiene habits	It’s all [oral health] based on habit. Starting with school, that’s the first thing they tell you, mouthwash, brush your teeth three times per day. That’s the main thing…When my kids were little, that was the first thing I would tell them about…that’s a duty. I live with my two sons and the first thing my kids have to do—because I taught them from when they were little—with cleanliness has to do mainly with their mouths.